BUS332 Week 4 Management and Employer Representatives

Overview Lecture 1

 Define ‘management’
 Identify goals and function of management
 Discuss role of employer associations
 Distinguish between different management strategies to control the labour process
 Analyse the effect that different management styles have employment relations

What is management?

 The group of people who direct the activities of the organisation

Goals and functions of management

 Management is an important actor in defining employment relationship

 Has choices in conduct of employment relationship
 Managers face constraints including:

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o Trade unions
o Tribunals and courts

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o State
o Technology

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
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Needs to be understood within the broader context of business objectives
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 Much debate about:
o Separation of ownership from control
o Implications for organisational goals
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o Reassertion of shareholder control

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 Forms of ownership and control:

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o Anglo-American-Australasian ‘outsider’ system

o Continental European-Japanese ‘insider’ system

Structure of the management of ER

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 Historically small private enterprises – owner/manager

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 In large private enterprises:

o Ownership separated from management
o Increasing numbers of specialised managers
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o Results in a great diversity in the way that enterprises manage employment

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relationships

Role of employer associations

 Collective organisations of employers e.g. ACCI, AI Group, BCA

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 Recent significant restructuring/mergers

 Political role: voice collective concerns
 Coordinate members response to industry-wide/national union campaigns
 Weakening unions and decentralisation result in decreased role

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 BUS332 Week 4 Management and Employer Representatives

Management and control of labour

 Management’s role
 Labour resources
o Converting labour power into productive labour
o Structures of control/methods
o Underlying conflict of interests…
 How work shall be organised?
 What work pace shall be established?
 What rights worker will enjoy?
 How employees relate to each other?

Management control strategies

 Open-ended nature of the employment relationship

 Friedman (1977) two broad types of strategy:

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o Direct control:
 Tight supervision; and

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 Minimum of industrial discretion
o Responsible autonomy:

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 Workers have status and autonomy; and
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 Discretion at work
 Managerial Control Strategies – Edwards (1979)
o Personalised Control: direct control
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o Technical control: work design and production system

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o Bureaucratic control: controls embedded in a system of:

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 Work rules
 Company policy
 Rewards
o Commitment-based control: more discretion for workers
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Business strategies and ER

 Business strategy influences employment relations

 ‘Strategic Choice’
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 Business-level strategies
 Porter’s three type of business strategies:
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o Innovation (or product differentiation) strategy

o Quality-enhancement strategy
o Cost-reduction strategy
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Business strategies and ER – Innovation

 Innovation/product differentiation strategy

o Used to develop distinct products/services
o Highly skilled employees
o Increased training and development
o Performance appraisal

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 BUS332 Week 4 Management and Employer Representatives

 Results in:
o Personal control and morale
o Greater commitment

Business strategies and ER – Quality

 Quality – enhancement strategy

o Used to enhance product/service quality
o Egalitarian treatment of employees
o High levels of employee participation
o Mix of individual and group performance appraisal
o Extensive employee training and development
 Results in:
o Highly reliable behaviour
o Individuals identify with organisational goals

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o Adaptable to join and technology change

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 Business strategies and ER – Cost Reduction

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o Cost-reduction strategy

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 Competitive advantage

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 ‘tight’ employee control
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 Focus on minimising overheads
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 Economic of scale
 Fewer or lower cost employees
 Fixed job descriptions
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 Narrow career paths

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 Short-term results orientation

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 Minimal employee training and development

Management choices
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 Different objectives for relations with employees and with unions

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 Management strategy with employees;

o Compliance, or
o Building commitment
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 Management strategy with unions;

o Avoidance,
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o Accommodation, or
o Active cooperation

Production strategies and ER

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 Shift from control to commitment

 Mass production
o Low costs
o Large-scale production
o Unskilled workers
o Repetitive tasks
 Flexible specialisation
o New technology

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 BUS332 Week 4 Management and Employer Representatives

o ‘Niche’
o Skilled and flexible workers

High-performance work systems and ER

 HPWS: a set of complementary management or work practices designed to engage

employees in the achievement of stated organisational goals
 Strategy designed and implemented to improve productivity and performance
 May be unitarist and pluralist

Challenges to effective ER practice

 Employment relations and HRM policies are not well integrated with business strategies
 Reasons
o Assumes organisations can make clear choice between strategies
o Notion of ‘fit or match’ between business strategy and set of ER or HRM policies

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o Willingness to embrace new approaches

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o Lack of strategic integration

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Managerial Styles and Attitudes

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